In May, 2012 I did the “Three-Countries-Three-Weeks-Three-Kids” tour. It was unbelievable! The first stop on my once-in-a-lifetime trip was to Shanghai, to visit my daughter. I toured the grounds of the school where my daughter teaches, we went off sightseeing, and I wandered through the Botanical Gardens and made friends.
After I toured the Botanical Gardens, I met up with my daughter after she got off work. We got on the subway and headed downtown, to the Shanghai landmarks you see in all of the American Express and General Electric ads on television.
The subways in Shanghai were wonderful. Fast, cheap, clean, no problems at all. Of course, I had a “native guide” with me, but even so, I wouldn’t feel shy about trying to navigate them on my own. As you can see from this picture, it wasn’t rush hour. At rush hour they may not be quite as bad as Tokyo’s subways, but they’re close.
This golden temple in the middle of all the skyscrapers is stunning, especially from a distance. Close up it loses a bit of that glamour, with street level being crowded, noisy, and a mish-mash of power and communications lines running above the street every which way. Note that the large blue traffic signs are in both Chinese and English.
The Pearl Tower. With everything being so flat, one of its primary purposes is to be a communications tower, but it’s also a great place to see the city from above. Built for some expo or world’s fair – you can google it. Any way you cut it, it’s a signature landmark and a spectacular one at that.
We were at the Pearl Tower on a day where we had about a two minute wait to buy tickets. This is the room for ticket purchases, with serpentine line management hardware as far as the eye can see. I would prefer not to be there on a day when they need to have all of this in use.
The elevators in the Pearl Tower look like something out of Star Trek or Logan’s Run. I doubt that this is an accident. They’re still pretty cool looking, and fast as all get out.
From the top of the Pearl Tower, you can see how hazy the city is. Some of it’s clouds and haze, since Shanghai is on the coast in a subtropical area. Some of it, unfortunately, is smog. I was told that this was considered a “clear” day.
Across the Zhongshan River is The Bund. It’s made up of many different architectural styles and the area goes back to the days of French colonization. Lots of restaurants, very high end shopping, and so on.
The view to the south (I think) from the Pearl Tower.
The view to the north (I think) from the Pearl Tower. The tallest building on the right (with the odd “bottle opener” top) is the Shanghai World Financial Center, the sixth tallest building in the world. (Unless something new has been built in Dubai this week…) Just to the right of it is the Jin Mao Tower, the sixteenth tallest building in the world. (The Shanghai Tower is nearing completion and will be the second tallest building in the world when it’s completed.) They like tall in Shanghai.
Yes, on the top observation deck of the Pearl Tower they have one of those glass floor sections that you think won’t bother you at all and then it truly scares the crap out of you when your primitive brain stem decides to ignore your higher cognitive functions. It’s still fun.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 